By Luminita Olteanu, Associate at Wolf Theiss & Asociatii

As frequently happens, application of provisions as regards customs law may prove difficult for both the Romanian authorities and taxpayers. Recently, the president of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) has adopted a series of new rules on access to the NCTS-RO transit application in view of modernizing and facilitating the submission of customs declarations.

The said rules have been enforced by the Order no. 2783/2014 published in the Official Gazette of Romania on September 12 and effective since September 15, 2014. As the National Customs Authority was absorbed by ANAF in June 2013, the license/certificate attesting conformity to access to the NCTS-RO or the IRT (International Road Transport) components will be issued by the Department of Information Technology, Communications and Customs Statistics within ANAF.

The advantages of companies using NCTS-RO are: (i) Saving time in the customs clearance process; (ii) Fast release of the guarantee; (iii) Instant availability of information in case of any possible issues;

Amongst other changes, the rules introduce a series of new minimal technical requirements for the NCTS-RO application users through the DTI (Direct Trader Input) connectivity solution.

Access permits of economic operators to the NCTS-RO for both the management of Community transit and the ITR/NCTS components issued before releasing the Order no. 2783/2014 shall remain valid until March 2015, the latest.

Who can get access to the NCTS-RO?

Under the Rules, Paragraph 2, as provided by the the similar instructions abolished upon enforcing the Rules, access to NCTS-RO can be granted to people who are:

i.   principals/agreed forwarders, holders of transit regime, declaring goods on their behalf;

ii.  customs brokers as representatives of principals;

iii. agreed consignees or their representatives;

iv. anyone, under the EEC Regulation no. 2913/92 establishing the Community Customs Code, provided they prove their authority to represent the holder of the transit regime.

In addition to those referred to in (ii), (iii) and (iv) above, access to the ITR/NCTS component can also be obtained by transporters, ITR card holders, who declare goods on their behalf or the national associations concerned, if they ask to represent their transporters.

Technical solutions for the NCTS-RO

The Rules introduce the following technical solutions:

i. "Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Network" SSL VPN (using digital certificate) secure connection to the WEB interface of the NCTS-RO, DTI connectivity solutions allowing: (i) data input based on both transit declarations and ITR cards, as well as its processing; and (ii) loading data with respect to transit declarations and ITR cards, respectively from an XML file;

ii. secure exchange of data between personal applications and the NCTS-RO, hereinafter referred to as the EDI (Exchange Data Interface) connectivity solution.

The main steps in obtaining the access permit to the NCTS-RO

Access permits to the NCTS-RO are granted based on written request, as illustrated by the Rules, Annex 2. The request shall be accompanied by a series of documents, including: empowerment of the person signing the request; a copy of the permit allowing the use of ITR cards, if applicable; a copy of the customs broker permit, if applicable, as well as other documents, depending on the circumstances.

Individuals requesting access through the DTI connectivity solutions are granted access permits or denied access to the NCTS-RO application no later than 30 days from the date of registration of the permitting file.

Individuals requesting access through the EDI connectivity solution obtain the cetificate of conformity only after the successful completion of the compliance tests available on www.customs.ro